Brining Meat - How Does Brine Make My Meat So Moist?

Brining
meat is a simple and classic cooking technique which is very good to
know for the preparation of certain meats that tend to dry out. The
purpose of brining meat is to impart moisture and cause a chemical
change that will both tenderize the meat and make it less likely to lose
moisture during longer dry-cooking methods such as grilling and
roasting.

Around
the holiday season people are often looking for good ways to prepare
turkey without it becoming too dry. It seems that a bird as big as a
turkey is impossible for many to cook without it becoming as dry as the
Sahara, at least that's how some of my relatives cook it. Also, if
your goal is to barbecue pork using the traditional low and slow
methods; cooking long hours at low heat, then brining your meat is going
to result in a much better and tastier product.

While
brining meat is similar to marinading they are not the same thing.
The goal of marinading is to add flavor while brining adds moisture,
but flavors can be added to the brine mixture to “kick it up a
notch” as Emeril Lagasse would say.

So,
in effect, brining will take the place of marinading if your cooking
method calls for longer cook times with dry heat methods, or in the event
that you are using high heat methods such as grilling and roasting.
Let's first explore what happens during the brining process.

Brining
Meat – How it Works

There
are two different processes at work when you brine meat: osmosis and
diffusion. Now think back to chemistry class; do you remember what
these are? Diffusion is a law that says molecules of a greater
concentration flow to areas of lower concentration until an
equilibrium is reached. Osmosis is the net movement
of water across a selectively permeable membrane driven by a
difference in solute concentrations on the two sides of the membrane.
A selectively permeable membrane is one that allows the unrestricted
passage of water, but not solute molecules or ions.

What
that means in English is that, by virtue of diffusion, water moves through
the cells of the meat via osmosis during the brining process, and salt and sugar molecules are carried with it into the meat.

So,
you have a piece of meat or a turkey you are going to brine. You will mix
up a specific ratio of water and salt and sugar, adding spices or
seasonings if you like, and you will soak your meat in this brine solution.
The concentration of the salt and sugar molecules outside of the meat is
greater than inside, so the law of diffusion forces this to be
equalized through the semi-permeable membrane that is the cellular
walls of the meat. As water diffuses into the meat it carries with
it molecules of salt and sugar. This is very important to the
brining process, and just soaking the meat in water will effectively
do nothing. It is the salt and sugar causing the osmotic pressure that drives the whole process.

This is how the tangled up protein strands look before we brine the meat

When
the salt moves into the cells it causes the protein strings within
the cells to unravel in a process called denaturing. You can imagine the
protein strands are balls of yarn, and the denaturing simply uncoils them. This unraveling is a good thing, because now your unraveled yarn can
interact with other uncoiled balls of yarn and get tangled up with them.
This, in effect, forms a matrix of sorts that retains the water. Aha!
Now I see the lightbulb! When the meat is cooked the proteins lose
flexibility as they solidify, and the moisture isn't allowed to
escape which results in juicy turkey or pork.

Before
we move on, there are meats which will not likely benefit from the
process of brining. Most fatty meats such as beef, lamb, and duck
are not good candidates. Conversely, many kinds of fish and other
seafood, especially shrimp, can benefit from brining. The process
will actually firm up shrimp, and make them much better candidates
for grilling. You should keep in mind, though, that this is a technique better
reserved, in most cases, for cooking methods that take longer and
impart no moisture.

How
to Brine Meat

Before
you start, you will want to have some basics:

Salt
– preferably Kosher for its courseness, but if table salt is used
we will just use slightly less.

Sugar
– refined white is fine, but brown sugar is perfect for pork to
barbecue.

A
vessel or ziplock bag large enough for your meat or bird. A note –
do not use anything reactive such as aluminum. Glass, plastic, or
stainless steel is best.

Room
in the refrigerator or a cooler with some icepacks. Ideal brining
temperature is near 40F.

The
basic recipe calls for 1 quart of brine per pound of food, but not
more than two gallons total. For each quart of water, you will add ½ cup
of sugar and ½ cup of Kosher salt. If you are using table salt, you
should use ¼ cup plus an extra tablespoon or two. Add your dry
ingredients to cold water and stir until dissolved completely.

If
your method of cooking calls for high heat, you may want to drop the ratio slightly to 2 tablespoons of sugar and use a similar amount of
table salt (¼ cup Kosher) to balance things out. This is primarily
to prevent the sugar from burning on the surface during cooking.

If
there are any flavorings you wish to add, now is the time. Herbs such as rosemary and bay leaves are perfect as are various spices, and the process of osmosis will carry them into the meat
during the brining. Other popular additions are aromatics such as onion and garlic.

Your
meat will need to soak in the brine solution for approximately 1 hour
per pound, but not more than 8 total hours or less than 30 minutes
per pound. This time estimate is made for one whole piece of meat, so multiple smaller pieces of meat will take
less time, even if their overall combined weight is more.

For example, sliced
pork chops weighing 3 pounds total would not require the same amount of
time as a 3 pound pork shoulder. There are exceptions to these time
scales with regard to cuts of meat that weigh more than 10 pounds
such as a whole turkey or larger cuts of pork. A whole turkey should
go about 24 hours and pork loin or butt would be from 12 – 24
hours.

During
soaking you will need to make sure that you keep the meat cold. If there
is not room in a refrigerator, then you will need a cooler or some other
way of keeping the whole apparatus below 40F. The food safety danger
zone is between 40F and 140F. In between those numbers bacteria can
cause you some problems, so please be safe...especially with poultry!

These big ziplock bags and a cooler are great if there is no room in your refrigerator, or if it's cold enough outside use a tub as shown here.

Upon
removing from the brine, you will want to rinse the meat well. This
can be accomplished under running tap water with little effort, even
a large turkey, especially if your sink has a sprayer. Just be sure you rinse all of the brine off the meat to prevent it from tasting too salty. If you like
crisp skin you may want to dry off any poultry parts. Use paper towels to pat dry, and then hold in the
refrigerator for a few hours until the skin is not soaking wet. You
should see it looking a little “tighter”.

Cook
your meat however you wish, and the result should be much juicier turkey or
moist barbecue. Enjoy!

The end result is delectable, juicy goodness! This whole chicken was grilled and had a dry rub applied to the outside prior to grilling.